Kentucky sitting near bottom of rankings in environmental protection: Study

KENTUCKY (FOX 56) — A recent study showed that the U.S. produces over 292 million tons of waste annually, and Kentucky is one of the primary culprits.

According to a SmileHub study, Americans produce more than 4.9 pounds of waste per day. SmileHub claimed that over 50% of Americans worry about the toxic waste pollution of soil and water sources.

The study compared 50 states across three key factors: environmental protection, energy consumption and waste disposal, and emission and pollution contributions.

The charity locating website said that Kentucky doesn’t work as hard as other states in limiting its pollution.

In the study, SmileHub found that, after comparing all 50 states, Kentucky ranks 47th overall in environmental protection, only being outpaced by Kansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

With a total score of 33.60, Kentucky ranks:

• 39th in environmental protection per capita
• 42nd in share of state land designated for parks and wildlife
• 37th in energy efficiency
• 41st in total tonnage of landfill waste per capita
• 31st in industrial toxins per square mile

Regarding Kentucky’s green initiatives, the Bluegrass ranks 42nd in share of population using green transportation, which is contributing to its overall rank of 20th in terms of vulnerability to climate change, the study found.

SmileHub data claims the overall top-ranking states in terms of environmental protection are California, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont.

As for overall scores in the study, the top five performing states are California, Washington, New York, Vermont, and Maryland. While Louisiana, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Dakota scrape the bottom of the barrel, according to SmileHub.